Welcome Kim Rak!

I am happy to announce that Kim Rak has accepted the position to be our Director of Religious Education. You may remember that Kim served for three months as our Interim Director in the Spring of this year when Mary Beth May was on maternity leave.

Our Search Committee after interviewing Kim was impressed by her knowledge, skill and ability and felt that she will be a great addition to Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph parish. Kim will start working for us on August 1st.

I have asked Kim to share a few words of introduction with our community.

My name is Kim Rak and some of you may remember me as I filled in for Mary Beth May while she was out on her maternity leave this spring. God is a God of surprises and I am excited and Religious Education. Before that I was an elementary school teacher and a theatrical costume designer. Having raised three children to adulthood, my husband and I are empty nesters in Evanston.

To celebrate several recent life milestones, in May/June I traveled to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage of 500 miles. My spiritual journey ended with an offer to come back to this parish so God’s been indeed watching over me everyday. Thank you for helping me to carry the journey forward.

A Pair of Green Thumbs

We are grateful for Tom Slavin and Joanna Dadajewski who throughout the Summer have teamed up to tend to the outside prayer garden at Immaculate Conception Church. The gift of their green thumbs and watchful eyes have kept this sacred place a beautiful and peaceful place to pray and reflect.

Take a few moments during the week to stop in the garden and relax your mind and heart. Our God of Creation has a way to soothe our souls. Stop. Look. Pray. Give thanks.

In the Black

All the parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago operate their budgets based on a fiscal year that runs from July 1st to June 30th. I am pleased to announce that at the end of our last fiscal year, June 30th, 2016, Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph Parish has been able to “finish in the black” with the income from our Sunday collections and Christmas and Easter donations. We were able to save $.

Below is a brief history of the Operating Loans that were incurred each year and applied to our parish debt at the end of the fiscal year.

Since my appointment as pastor to the parish in July of 2013, I have been working closely with the members of the Finance Council, and Mark Besztery, our Parish Business Manager, along with our Pastoral Staff to review and trim our expenses by some $280,000.

It is important to note that our parish does not provide any subsidy to our parish school. Our school is financially self-sufficient.

I am grateful to our parishioners who have been able to share their time, talents and treasures. As you may know, Archbishop Cupich is committed through the Renew My Church program to make sure parishes throughout the Archdiocese are viable and sustainable for the future.

The good news is that Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph is headed in the right direction especially as we foresee the rapid growth taking place in our neighborhood. We need to constantly grow our parish ministries, and have the resources to support them.